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Christine may well be correct about this being a 'glower' and no doubt someone will explain to Jojobeth the need for a u.v. torch to verify this.It did occur to me whether it might have been some shade of opaline. I don't recall, but was/is there a type of glass known as Jadeite?

Oddly, imho, this set doesn't look to be in a style reflecting its period of manufacture, which I'm assuming might have been 1930/1950 perhaps -it has an almost French Empire style appearance - the faux gilding, claw feet, and not a straight line in site - not what you'd expect from the nineteen thirties to fifties period.

No idea as to maker, although again Christine may well be correct, and no doubt if the text on the label is in English then presumably made for the English/American export markets.

Have to say I like this a lot - does remind me of first half C19 French opaline, but then I also like deco, nouveaux, a. & c., Dresser, Glasgow school and ..................

sorry none of this is of any constructive use.

Might it be of any use looking through Barry Skelcher's volumes, do we think??

Thank you so much for all your help everyone. Just to add. The made in Italy is on a label on the back (a sticker thing). I have seen pictures of Opaline and think it might be that?? But I will look at Jadite and Onyxite too. I don't know ANYTHING about he UV light thing that Paul S suggested... do I need to use a UV torch or something?

hi - as far as I know, the only material that requires the use of a u.v. torch - in order to see the fluorescence - is glass that is either known, or suspected of, containing uranium oxide (spent/depleted I believe), and these torches are inexpensive generally, and can be bought on the internet for under ten pounds. You can impress your friends and explain the 'glow' as being the effect of the short wave length of ultra violet light exciting the outer molecules of the uranium atom, causing them to leap about frantically and jump to a higher orbit - and it's when they fall back into lower orbit that they give out quanta of visible light which we see as fluorescence - by this time of course you probably won't have any friends left. As Christine will tell you, uranium glass comes in many colours - some you'd never suspect of being so - including pink, strawberry and turquoise apparently.

To the best of my limited knowledge, traditionally made opaline, which was a popular first half C19 French material (although apparently invented in Murano originally in the C17), did not contain uranium - it is sometimes known as milk and water glass, and the word 'opalin' is allegedly derived from the Baccarat factory c. 1820s. Opaline is mostly opacified with ashes of calcined bones, and coloured with shades of metallic oxides, which give those glorious pastel hues - bulle de savon and gorge de pigeon - soap bubble and pigeon's neck, colours. I had some notion it also contained arsenic, but now not sure. Opaline is a beautiful creation - some varieties vastly more so than others - and it's different forms have a complex history - the word opaline is often troubled by connection with 'opalescent glass' and 'opal glass' - when held up to a strong light source, opaline gives what is often called a 'sunset glow' - the transmitted light i.e. what you see through the glass with the light source behind, gives an orange/salmon glow.Most of us at some time or another confuse these terms - they are really quite a minefield, and there's still a lot of confusion as to which is exactly which.

Some two or three years back we spilled more ink discussing opaline than probably any other subject the Board has discussed - I seem to remember it ticked on for months, and if you punch opaline into the Board's search you will have enough to read until Christmas!

Christine is chief in charge of uranium discussions here - I wonder if she actually glows in the dark - and have to say I'm ignorant of the stuff, other than the information I read in books - so take the lady's word for it that there is a material called Veritable Opaline de Murano which is a glass containing uranium ................ thank goodness it's not strontium 90 that provides the glow!Very little Uranium glass made now - but just to say that apparently Thomas Webb were using it up until c. 1970 and in the States Fenton continued until virtually the end of the C20. I suspect, but am not sure, that it remains in use still in one or two European countries.

A couple of good reads dedicated to uranium glass are Barry Skelcher's two volumes - both are Schiffer books published in the States I think, and no doubt available on Abe Books - they aren't expensive, or at least they didn't used to be. I did speak to him some years back when I was buying my copies - which he signed for me as he had copies at his home - but I don't think he has any copies with him now.